This study was presented to examine the development of reading ability on a child with reading difficulties. Two surveys were carried out.
The purpose of survey 1 was to ascertain the general trend of correlation between oral reading fluency and development of reading ability. Participants were 17 children with normal reading ability who were engaged in former study（Shimada, 2012）. 3 assessment tools were used. ① Oral Prose Reading Tasks （OPRT）, ② Learning Disabilities Inventory−Revised（LDI−R）③ Kyokenshiki Reading Ability Test （KRAT）.
When all participants were elementary first graders, their reading speed and accuracy had been assessed by OPRT（Shimada, 2012）. About one year later, when all participants were elementary second graders, reading ability of all participants were assessed by LDI−R and KRAT. The results showed that correlation between OPRT and LDI−R was significant, and also correlation between OPRT and KRAT was significant too. So it was concluded there were some general trend that oral reading fluency at first grade significantly relate to reading ability at second grade.
The purpose of survey 2 was to ascertain the relation between oral reading fluency and development of reading ability on a child with reading difficulties. Participant was a child who was engaged in assessment of reading difficulties and identified as a reading learning disabled. 3 assessment tools were used. ① OPRT, ②Screening Test of Reading and Writing for Japanese Primary School Children（STRAW）③Hiragana Letter Test of Reading and Writing（HTRAW）, which was my handmade non−standardized test.
When the child was first grader, his reading ability was assessed by OPRT, STRAW, and HTRAW. One year later, when he was second grader, his reading ability was assessed by STRAW and HTRAW again. The results showed that all test scores at first grade were very low, then it was ascertained that his reading speed was slow, miss−readings were so frequent, and errors of hiragana letters were so many. One year later, test scores of STRAW were still very low. So it was concluded that obviously there was strong relation between oral reading fluency at first grade and reading ability at second grade especially on a reading learning disabled.